Research published by Susan Williams results in new international inquiry into death of UN secretary general Dag Hammarskjöld
A fresh international inquiry is to be opened into the mysterious 1961 plane crash that killed the UN secretary general Dag Hammarskjöld. This follows the emergence of new evidence over the past year and, in particular, a book published in 2011 by Susan Williams, a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies.
In Who Killed Hammarskjöld?, Susan points to witness testimony that the plane was possibly shot down by western mercenaries, and that the assassination was covered up by colonial authorities; evidence corroborated by a Guardian investigation in the same year.
The commission of inquiry will be carried out by four international high-profile jurists, including retired British judge The Rt Hon Sir Stephen Sedley (Chair), Justice Richard Goldstone of South Africa, former Swedish diplomat Hans Correll and Supreme Court Judge Wilhelmina Thomassen of The Netherlands. They hope to review the evidence, complete their report and submit the findings as appropriate to the UN within a year.
The inquiry was established by an "enabling committee" chaired by Lord Lea of Crondall and including the former Commonwealth secretary general, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, and the former archbishop of Sweden, Karl Gustav Hammar.
Lord Lea, in describing why the decision was taken to open a new inquiry, said "Why are we doing this? Because we believe that the whole of the truth, in significant respects, has yet to be told. There is prima facie evidence from a book published in 2011, by Susan Williams, and from other sources, that there is new information that ought to be evaluated."
Emeka Anyaoku commented: “I think that it would be of very great interest to many in the Commonwealth to clear the air on this question, which has been in the background for such a long time, with such a distinguished Commission of Jurists.”
Mr Hammarskjöld remains the only UN secretary general to have died in office and is the only person to have been posthumously awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. American President John F Kennedy described him as the “greatest statesman of our century”.
Further information about the inquiry is available from The Guardian website and from the BBC website.
